A bi-weekly newspaper supportive of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party announced yesterday it would close its doors after 17 years because of nepotism and conflict within the party.

Boy Roy, the 47-year-old publisher of Khmer Nation, a four-page, black-and-white, bi-weekly newspaper, said yesterday he had lost faith in the opposition party.

“I decided to close my newspaper permanently because I lost confidence in the Sam Rainsy Party because of nepotism and splits within the party,” Boy Roy said.

“I am not a member of the SRP. I supported this opposition party because I love the party’s policy, but recently I found there are many internal problems and many good people have left the party.’’

Declining sales were also to blame, with recent issues selling fewer than 30 per cent of the copies printed, Boy Roy said.

SRP spokesman Yim Sovann said the paper’s closure was not linked to the party because it had never funded the paper’s operations.

“It is the right of the publisher and the independence of the newspaper,” he said.